Seldom in human history have people adopted a communications technology so widely and rapidly as users of the Internet have embraced the World Wide Web.
The Internet provides an ever increasing potential for information interchange, and in order to encourage individuals to take part in this communications revolution, many software providers supply free demonstration versions of their software on-line, sometimes called Free-ware and Share-ware. Individuals may dial-up the home page of a supplier and access the demonstration software for trial purposes. This may even involve down-loading the software onto the personal computer of the individual.
Free-ware and share-ware are attractive forms of software in marketing. However, one drawback in supplying software in this manner is that many never actually subscribe to buy the full version of the software continuing to utilise the demonstration version, which is sometimes powerful in its own right. Many software providers are therefore discouraged to provide demonstration versions of their software on-line.
It is an object of the present invention to substantially overcome, or at least ameliorate, one or more of the problems mentioned above.